The Golden Circle is what tourists visit along with the South Coast when they have limited time in Iceland. These places are nearby from Reykjavik within a 2-hour drive. We decided to tour this area during the last days of our trip as we got back to Reykjavik.

Thingvellir National Park - This place is of significance for 2 reasons - one geological and one historical. The continental rift can be seen here as the two tectonic plates - Eurasian and American - move away from each other at the rate of a few inches every year. This shift of tectonic plates is what’s behind all the volcanic activity and creation of Iceland. This place is of historical importance because this is where the first people who came to Iceland organized as a community/nation. This was the seat of their government. In recognition of that fact, when Iceland became a republic in 1944, those ceremonies were held at this location.





Lunch at Fridheimar tomato farm - When V read about this place, we definitely wanted to eat here. It is a tomato farm where they grow everything in greenhouses. Some of the greenhouses also serve as a restaurant. They have a menu that is heavily based on tomatoes grown at the farm. It was a great experience. We shared a bloody mary and bruschetta and had our own bowls of their famous tomato soup. Delicious food all around. I’d highly recommend anyone who goes to this area to eat here.



Geysir is an area with geothermal activity. Many hot water springs and a couple of geysers like the Old Faithful in Yellowstone. A geyser named Strokkur shoots out steam and boiling water upto 65-130 feet every 4-10 minutes. Other than this geyser, I think the Hverir area near Lake Myvatn was much better.


Gullfoss is another huge and powerful waterfall that tumbles over multiple steps. By this time in the trip we had seen so many waterfalls and this one was great but didn’t really excite us much. I can imagine if the Golden Circle is the only thing that someone does in Iceland, then this would be a fantastic waterfall.



Drove back to Reykjavik from the Golden Circle area and got there before 6 pm. The Iceland Parliament Hotel doesn’t have direct road access and parking. So, we had to park on the street a couple of blocks away and walk there with all the luggage. Inconvenient but not too bad. The hotel is quite nice.

We had a dinner reservation at a different restaurant but decided to try our luck and walk in at ROK. It was our lucky day and we got a table in this busy restaurant right away. The food was great and lived up to the hype of the reviews. We shared baked cheese as an appetizer and then I had cured reindeer and Vaishali had a salad. We both had Plokkfiskur after that. Shared fried camembert with berries and homey as dessert.

We were exhausted from all the travel and had no energy to go out to view the Northern lights. The prediction said there was a good chance but, it looked cloudy and we used that reason to just hit the bed.